Second Sunday of Advent
Second of Advent
Welcome!
We know not everyone who is part of Westwood Church is able to be in church on Sunday morning however, we thought it would be good to offer some excerpts from the Sunday morning service. Where we can, we offer parts of the service in text and audio, whichever works best for you. If you want to plug in headphones to your computer, tablet or mobile phone now is a good time to do it ! If you want to offer some comment or feedback just use the comment box at the end of this post.
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Isaiah 11: 1 – 10
Romans 15: 7 – 13
Praise – Hark the glad sound
Prayers
Lord as we come to worship together during this Advent season, refresh our hearts with the wonder of Your story. Guide us by Your Holy Spirit into deeper revelations of Your love, mercy and hope. Lord, we want to understand your purposes, we want to know what you have in store for us, where you are leading us and why? Reveal your will to us.
Father God, You led your people through the dry weariness of the desert to start a new life in a land of promise. We too are waiting for your leading and the promise of your kingdom. The path is dusty; our shoes are worn; our spirits are worn out and our hearts are weary. And sometimes we do not know where You are taking us; yet we trust in you to come again and lead us to new life.
Through countless generations your prophets and preachers have prepared the way for your coming. They have spoken boldly of your love and your justice. We give thanks for those who were bold enough to prepare the way even though it cost them dearly. We thank you for the calling you place upon us to prepare the way for others; may we learn how to speak with boldness about the things of God until at last, the Son returns to claim us as His own.
With timid hearts we offer ourselves to You Lord, cautious of what faith in you might ask us to do. Yet with hearts that are ready to rejoice we accept all that you offer to us. We receive your grace, your promises, your strength and prepare the way for the coming of the Christ.
Hear us as we join in the words of the Lord’s Prayer saying…
Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.
Address
Is it so implausible to believe that God has so arranged and organised human lives that all our experiences, both good and bad, can be used to fulfil God’s purposes. We probably all know someone, it might even be ourselves, who has endured life’s more painful experiences and found that it has in fact deepened faith in God. I don’t believe our God is a God of vengeance who sends suffering and pain upon us, but God can and does use those moments to bring us closer to him and to deepen our faith in him.
We only have to look to the Cross of Christ to see that suffering is an unavoidable part of human existence; even the Christ had to embrace suffering to truly know what this life is like. His suffering was extreme but through it , every human being is enabled to find hope and strength and faith. Even the Lord himself grew spiritually through his ordeal, for his crucifixion resulted in a glorious resurrection. And we too always have the opportunity through any suffering we might experience, to come closer to the Christ and become more like him. Our sufferings mould us, shape us and prepare us for what is to come.
Paul the Apostle sees the whole history and culture of the Jews nation as a preparation for the revelation of Jesus as Saviour of the whole world. In today’s reading from Romans, Paul selects appropriate Old Testament passages to show that Jesus was destined to be the Messiah for Gentiles as well as for the Jews.
There was already a Christian church in Rome before Paul’s visit there, but we don’t know who founded it or how it began. The Church in Rome probably contained Jews and Gentiles. It was an uneasy relationship between these two groups. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome calls upon all the Christians to “live in harmony with one another”.
The big obstacle to unity at that time was the issue of circumcision. The Jewish Christians led by James and other elders in Jerusalem, proclaimed that it was impossible to be part of God’s family without accepting the sign of circumcision. Paul on the other hand supported the Gentiles, proclaiming that although it was necessary in the past, circumcision was now unnecessary. All that was needed to be a child of God was faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul believes that the promise expressed through circumcision, and indeed the whole of the Old Testament, was a preparation for the coming of God as Jesus Christ. The Jews, naturally enough, could not see how God’s promise could be fulfilled in anyone without the sign of circumcision.
We don’t have the same arguments today over circumcision. But we need to remember that in the past, people risked their lives and their reputations so that we might worship freely. Starting with Paul and the Gentiles in the early Christian church and going on through the Inquisition and the Reformation and even the Covenanters and a multitude of other upheavals, the way has been prepared for us by courageous Christian ancestors.
Maybe one of our prime tasks as Christians is to prepare the way for others. And perhaps we might never know quite what way we’re preparing, or quite who we’re preparing it for. Maybe we’re not even conscious of preparing the way, but all our actions, our words our thoughts affect the way things are. The presence in this world of every single one of us has meaning and purpose; suffering has purpose. Our purpose is to make the way smooth for those who come after us.
Even Jesus needed a herald to prepare the way for him, and didn’t John suffer for the message he brought; and we have certainly needed people to prepare the way for us; people who suffered so we could hear the message of hope and faith and salvation. Now it’s our turn to make things as ready as we can for future generations. We dare to stand up for what we believe in, we live by faith, and endure suffering for the sake of Christ.
Praise – I cannot tell
Prayers for Others
Lord God, we remember today how so many looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the one who would save Israel even though they had no real knowledge of who or how that would come to be. They simply trusted that You would fulfil your promise but we remember also how it became harder to go on believing as the years went by; how hope began to falter and dreams began to fade until in due time, the prophecy was fulfilled, You came to live amongst us as Jesus Christ, the definitive expression of Your love.
We remember with gladness how He brought hope throughout His ministry, a sense of purpose to those for whom life seemed pointless – the poor, sick, outcasts and broken-hearted – light shining in their darkness, joy breaking into their sorrow, new beginnings in what had seemed like the end. Hear us as we pray asking that you bring fresh hope to our world even through us and the faith, we treasure…
Hear us as we pray for those caught in the grip of despair – those for whom the future seems bleak, optimism seems foolish and trust seems futile. Reach out in love, and may the light shine into their darkness. Lord of all, the Word made flesh, bring hope to your world today. Lord hear us in our prayers…
Hear us in our prayers for those who mourn, or who wrestle with illness, or who know suffering in their lives to which they can see no end. Reach out in love and grant them your strength and comfort. Lord of all, the Word made flesh, bring hope to your world today. Lord hear our prayers…
Praise – On Jordan’s Bank
The Grace
And now… May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love, now and for evermore. AMEN.